Sonic X: Emel (Emerl) Saga Reritten
by I Hate Snatch Steal
Summary: During Emel's [Emerl's] rampage Tails's mind gets sent back in time so he gets a chance to redo the battle tournament.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

**Note that "Emel" is NOT a typo. Emerl was mistranslated as "Emel" for the English dub of Sonic X. I'm choosing to keep this (mis)translation for my story.  
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**Watching episodes 45 and 46 (46 only up until Tails and Amy collide during a fight scene) of Sonic X is highly recommended before reading.**

After winning the battle tournament held by the U.S. government, Emel was presented a chaos emerald. The energy of the emerald re-activated his true nature, and he went Berserk. He attacked people in the audience and went on a rampage in the city. Sonic Knuckles and Rouge tried to stop him, but were unsuccessful. Sonic had just rushed Amy out of danger and Emel had just screw kicked Knuckles when Tails decided to join the fight. "I'm going to take Emel apart!" Tails yelled. "Let me have a crack at him first Tails!" Amy replied. Tails was closing in and could see Amy approaching when Emel jumped away at the last second. Tails and Amy collided hard.

Tails opened his eyes to see that he wasn't lying in a wrecked street. In fact, he was lying on an invisible surface in the middle of a sea of stars, as if he was in space but with an invisible floor and gravity. "Sonic? Amy?" he said. His words traveled as if the space around him was endless. "I'm glad you're awake " came a voice from behind him. Tail turned and saw another two tailed fox but unlike him it fur was silver and it had emerald eyes. It looked to older then Sonic, but not into old age by any means. "Where am I... and who are you?" Tails asked. "I am called the Silver One" it said. Its voice was calm and even. "You are in a pocket space that I created with my power, since I want to give you another chance to prove yourself." Tails quickly replied, "My friends are in danger, I have to go back." The Silver One looked like he'd expected the response. "Time passes differently here, your friends will be fine even if you stayed here a full day or more." Tails was surprised, but he asked again "Please, how do I get back". The Silver one once again wasn't surprised. "Your loyalty to your friends is commendable and I will help you save them. I could manifest myself in your world and take care of Emel myself with my awesome power. However my greater desire is for you to become who you truly could be, since I admire you for who you are and for your untapped potential." Tails gave a confused look. "To put it simply, I'm going to use my power to send your mind back to the day the tournament began so you can stop Emel, but you must obey the following rules" Tails' expression changed as he listened intently. "Rule 1: You cannot tell anyone about me or that you know about the future. Rule 2: You must not escalate a fight until people are in danger. Rule 3: You must not destroy Emel until after he's started his rampage. This may seem convoluted, but overcoming this situation will make you stronger and I can give you as many retries as you need" The Silver One's expression changed to be more encouraging as and it said, "Don't forget to give that cheating bat a smack or two for me." Then everything faded to blackness.

"Wake up Tails" Chris's voice came floating into Tails's ears. Tails awoke slowly until he remembered the fight with Emel. "Is Sonic ok?" Tails asked urgently, his expression was suddenly concerned. "He's fine, why are you so worried?" Chris replied. Tails was about to say "Did he beat Emel and was anyone hurt?" when he suddenly had a coughing fit. Tails heard the Silver One's voice in his head, "I told you your mind is back in time and that you can't tell anyone, and no I'm not just a dream". Tails quickly recovered his composure and said "Sorry, I must have been having a nightmare." Chris smiled and said "That's ok. The stress of today's tournament is getting to me a little bit too".

The rest of the morning played out normally enough, only everyone else noticed Tails seemed distracted. Sonic confronted him about it before the tournament started. He walked up to Tails and said "Something on your mind?" Tails knew the rules, so he replied, "I'm just thinking about the tournament". It was partly true, Tails was thinking about what he could to do stop Emel. "You'll do fine, just trust yourself" Sonic said and ran off. Soon the first few matches started. The president lost, Chris won, and then it was Tails's turn. Tails knew he could beat Hawk, so he let the match play out the same way. Tails was silent as he held the referee's hand for a victory photo shoot. "If I do the same thing, things will be the same, so what do I do" he thought to himself. The rest of the matches played out the same way until Tails faced Rouge. The bell rang and Rouge said "Not Exactly what I'd call a challenge, but here goes." The fight went on for a minute or two, then Rouge said "You're not bad, for an amateur" Tails was so flustered that he fell right into Rouge's cheap kiss trick again. "I want to give you some training and another chance to defeat that cheating bat, you game?" the Silver One's voice said in Tail's head as he lay on the ground. Tails thought about how humiliating it was both times he lost to Rouge and nodded. He found himself in the strange see of stars once again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Tails faced the Silver One in the sea of stars with a determined look. "I see your ready to train and train hard" the Silver One said. A room materialized around them. It looked like a dojo, except that one wall had a mirror on it. The sea of stars was visible through the windows. "The magic mirror will instruct you on techniques" The Silver one said, "Once you've learned how to fight, I will create a sparing opponent for you." Tails walked up to the mirror and saw that his reflection didn't move as he did. Instead, it demonstrated a few moves, then Tails got a shock when he heard his own voice from the mirror telling him to try them out. "Sorry" The Silver One said, "I should have warned you about that". Tails quickly recovered and started practicing.

For almost 48 hours, Tails alternated between practicing techniques and sparing with solid illusions created by the Silver One. He got a few breaks of course, during which the Silver One showed him moving images of his past adventures for their amusement. After the first few hours, the Silver One explained that Tails wouldn't get need food, water, or sleep while he was in the space they were in. Tails faced all kinds of opponents, from those as nimble as he was to slow but strong giants. Some were honorable but some taunted him during their fights. Tails didn't win every fight at first, but he didn't give up and soon he was dominating. He even faced several illusions that could levitate in order to practice his air combat skills. Once Tails had defeated every illusion at least twice, the Dojo faded away. "You've done well, but never think your too good to stop improving." The Silver One said and once again everything faded.

Tails woke up a few minutes earlier then last time. He noticed that his arms and legs felt different. He felt one arm with the other and could swear his muscles felt more defined. The Silver One spoke in his head, "I didn't want all that strength training to go to waste, so your muscles now reflect all the practice you did." The change wasn't enough for someone else to notice very easily however.

The morning played out much as it had before the Silver One had come. Tails was determined and thus slightly more serious than usual. However it wasn't enough for anyone to ask him about it. The tournament started, and played out the same way until Tail's match against Hawk. "Let's do this!" Tails said, his voice more energetic then last time. Hawk quickly threw a flurry of punches. Tails took some of the hits with his tails, but dodged others. When Hawk raised one foot high for some kind of attack, Tails saw an opening and kicked Hawk's other foot. Hawk fell down and Tails quickly put Hawk in a choke hold until he gave up. Tails stood proudly and gave crowd a big smile as he held the referee's hand for a victory photo shoot. His posture was much more dignified then last time. "I hope your proud Silver Sensei" he thought to himself." The Silver One replied in his head, "Yes I definitely am, but the real victory will be defeating those who lie ahead." Fortunately Rouge had been too busy in front of the mirror to watch Tail's match.

Amy knocked Bokkun into next week and then it was intermission time. Tails was pleasantly surprised to see a slightly larger crowd of fans then last time waiting outside to greet him. Like last time, most of them wanted photo shoots with him and a small number wanted autographs. A few photos and autographs later Tails saw a boy sneaking a glance at him from behind an ice cream stand. The boy looked to be about Chris's age but was a little shorter. He met the boy's eyes and the boy ran off. Tails flew over the ice cream stand and saw the boy being comforted by a person who Tails assumed was the boy's mother while what looked like his older sister watched. He focused his ears and caught a bit of their conversation. "... I couldn't talk to him, there were too many people" the boy said, his voice sounded as if he was on the verge of tears. "Everyone else got a chance when they waited in line" the older sister said, "I think your just too being too shy like usual Fred" The boy's mother shot a warning look at the older sister and said "I know you wanted to talk to him because you admire him so much, you were talking for five minutes about how he stood up to Hawk." Tails saw a chance to help someone out the way Sonic had helped him out all those years ago. He landed next to the family and said "I've got a few minutes of intermission left, did you want to talk to me?"

Fred looked like he was cornered and too timid to speak. Tails assuming the gentlest demeanor he could and said "I heard you liked how I beat Hawk, did you want to tell me about it?" Fred timidly spoke, "Y-Yes, y-you stood up to someone twice your size, and won", Each word sounded like it came out with effort, "I... I wish I could be like you". Tails considered how to respond, then said "I trained long and hard for this tournament, you can be a good fighter too if you train hard enough." Fred started to tear up. "I tried," He sobbed, "Everyone at the dojo calls me a wuss since I can never win a sparring match." Fred's mother nodded indicating the truth of the story. Tails knew what was wrong. "I know what you're missing" he said, "You need to believe in yourself." Fred looked at him for a second and then said "How can you be so sure?" Tails replied, "I'm sure since I used to have the same problem." Fred looked like he couldn't believe his ears. Tails held out his hands and Fred came over expecting a hug. He was surprised when Tails flew both of them off the ground. Once they had gained some altitude Fred marveled at the view and Tails said, "The world is a big place and if you believe in yourself you can find a good place in it. Sonic taught me that." Fred's expression softened and he spoke more evenly, "I understand now... thank you Tails" After they'd landed, the loudspeakers proclaimed that the tournament would resume in 10 minutes. "Good luck Tails!" Fred yelled as Tails walked away, his voice full of vigor.

Knuckles scared away the black knight, Chris beat his Dad, Sam was disqualified for not waiting for the bell, and Lucky won by default like last time. Everything continued as it had until Tails's match against Rouge. The bell rang and Rouge said the same thing she did last time, "Not Exactly what I'd call a challenge, but here goes." Once again the fight went on for a minute or two, though this time Tail's attacks were more skilled so Rouge had to fight harder to keep up with them. Then Rouge said "You're not bad, for an amateur" Tails knew what she was trying to do and kept his cool. He flew over like before, but at the last second landed, grabbed Rouge's outstretched arm, and flung her over his head. Rouge landed hard on her back and Tails took to the air to give himself more room. Rouge got up and said, "You surprised me there, now I have to get serious." Her tone suggested that she still wasn't taking the fight seriously. "Bring it on!" Tails said with vigor. The battle continued for another few minutes. Rouge was starting to tire since Tails wasn't taking too many hits and was landing a few blows in return. Rouge decided to try her signature screw kick. Tails jumped out of the way of the attack at the last second and swiped Rouge hard in the head with his tails. The force of the blow knocked Rouge onto the ground. She fell hard and didn't get up. The bell rang and the announcer said "Tails is the winner, who would have thought that such little fox could put up such a big fight." Tails posed with the referee as the crowd gave a huge cheer. He looked around and spotted Fred in the stands. Tails waved at Fred and then took a bow. "Great job!" The Silver One said in Tail's mind. After Tails stepped off stage, Sonic ran over and said "Wow Tails I'm impressed. When did you learn to fight that well?" Tails sheepishly replied, "Uh, I've been practicing." Thankfully Tails was spared from further questions when the announcer called for the next contestants, Sonic and Amy.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

The "fight" between Sonic and Amy ended the same way as it had before, but not before Tails had to stifle a giggle at Sonic's requests for Chris's help. Afterwards The tournament had another intermission so Tails walked to the stadium's exit. He was surprised to see a huge crowd waiting outside for him. It looked easily twice as big as the one he'd seen after he beat Hawk. Some of the people had improvised signs with messages such as "Go Tails!" and "We love Karate Fox". One woman was even wearing a crocheted hat with fox ears. Tails walked up to the crowd and they started talking to him excitedly. "Your last match was amazing" one teen said. The woman with the fox ears hat shook his hand and said "Nice job beating Rouge, she gives us normal women a bad name." While still complementing him the crowd picked up Tails and paraded him over to a photo shoot stand. Tails posed in many photos and signed many autographs. Eventually, he noticed a familiar face coming up for one. "Hi Fred" Tails said nicely. "I wanted you to autograph this as a souvenir of today" Fred said and held out a hand drawn picture of Tails. The drawing wasn't professional quality, but Tails knew Fred had put his heart into it. He also noticed that Fred wasn't acting shy at all. Unlike the other autographs, he signed the picture "Miles 'Tails' Prower". Fred looked at the signature and Tails whispered "That's my full name. I only tell it to certain people" Fred smiled and ran off to show his family.

The tournament resumed however Tails wasn't in the announcer's booth this time. Knuckles didn't want to fight Chris, so he kept dodging. Eventually Chris asked Knuckles to forfeit. Knuckles replied, "OK, but look who's in the next round. Chris panicked as he thought to himself "I'd have to fight Amy or Tails!? Tails's martial arts skills put the Karate Kid to shame and if Amy gets mad enough she'll knock me out of the stadium! There's no way to win!" Chris forfeit in the same way he did last time. Lucky won via a strange forfeit and as expected Emel defeated Mr. Tanaka easily. Then, Tails walked into the stadium to face Amy.

As he walked over to his starting position he noticed some of his supporters out of the corner of his eye and smiled slightly. "Even if we're friends, I'm not holding back" Tails said firmly. "Neither am I" Amy replied and pulled out her piko piko hammer. Then the Bell rang. Amy charged at Tails swinging away but Tails dodged her mad hammer attacks with ease. "Try fighting instead of dodging" Amy said in an annoyed tone and she swung her hammer down again with her right hand. In one quick motion, Tails dodged the hammer, tripped Amy with one of his tails, and stepped on her right wrist. Using leverage, he wrenched the hammer out of Amy's grip and threw it out of the ring. Satisfied that he'd done enough, Tails flew away before Amy could retaliate and landed a few feet away. Amy stood up and realized that she couldn't hope to fight without her hammer. "You win." She said dejectedly and stormed off.

Lucky's luck ran out along with his power supply, giving Emel another win. Then it was time for Tails to face Knuckles. He knew that Knuckles hit as hard or harder then Amy did but wasn't so easy to disarm. The contestants entered the ring and Knuckles spoke "You've fought hard today Tails" he said, "I look forward to seeing which of us is stronger." Tails was surprised to hear the complement, but knew he'd earned it given who it had come from. "Thanks" Tails replied. Then the bell rang. Knuckles charged forward and punched away. Tails quickly went on the defensive, avoiding attacks like he'd done against Amy. Knuckles didn't complain, he knew that Tails was waiting for an opening. Tails however had other plans. After Knuckles started to tire and his attacks slowed slightly, Tails knew what to do. He grabbed Knuckle's wrist after dodging a punch and flung Knuckles over his head. This time however Tails was positioned such that his foe ended up outside the ring, resulting in his victory. Knuckles lay on the ground not knowing what to think: if someone had told him this morning that he'd lose to Tails in hand to hand combat, he'd have called them crazy but that very thing had just happened.

The final round came in what felt like a heartbeat. The referee called out the name of the contestants. "In this corner we have the underdog .. err... under-fox, who surprised many with his talent today, Tails! In this corner we have the master of computerized combat, Emel." Tails looked determined and declared "I'm in it to win it!" Then the bell rang.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Tails and Emel fought long and hard. Tails had learned a few new moves, but Emel copied then in mere seconds. The fight went on for longer than any of others had that day. However, Emel was slowly wearing out Tails since he had Sonic's and Rouge's skills to work with in addition. Tails was starting to tire when Emel landed a screw kick on him. Tails went flying back and landed hard on his chest. The crowd waited with baited breath as he struggled to get up. Cream was about to throw her handkerchief into the ring when Knuckles put a hand on her shoulder. "Tails isn't giving up" he said flatly. Tail was almost up when arms gave way and he fell down again. He was about to silently ask the Silver One for another chance when Fred's voice broke the silence from the stands. "Don't give up Tails! Believe in yourself!" A voice that sounded like it could belong to someone's mother added "Your an inspiration to kids everywhere, Keep fighting!" The rest of the crowd joined in cheering things like "Go Tails!" and "Beat that bucket of bolts!" Tails started to raise himself up again as he listened to the crowd. The more he heard, the stronger he felt. Suddenly he flipped back onto his feet and then charged at Emel.

Emel's combat AI told him to copy Tails again since he must be exhibiting a new skill. However when he tried, the copy function returned "Error, this data already exists". Emel could copy skills and fighting styles, but not emotions and feelings such as determination. Tails fought Emel with renewed vigor and soon Emel's power supply was running low. Tails landed an upper cut that sent Emel flying. Then he flew into the air and swiped Emel downward with his tails. Emel landed hard and didn't get up. The bell rang and Tails went up to receive his prize while the crowd cheered. As he walked up, he thought "I did it. I won". Once Tails was at the podium, the President shook his hand and said "Congratulations Tails. Your an inspiration to people everywhere." He turned to his aid and said "Bring the award." The announcer said "The Chaos Emerald presented to the winner is the most valuable prize ever awarded in a sporting competition." Tails was given the Emerald by the President, who announced "On behalf of the whole nation I congratulate Tails! Tails stared at the emerald and felt its power restoring some of his energy. Then he walked over to Emel as if to shake hands with him. Tails's hand held the emerald however and thus Emel absorbed it instead.

Tails jumped back when Emel's eyes changed color. Emel started attacking people and rampaging like last time. Sonic had just showed up and thus tried to stop him. He was aided by Rouge while Knuckles cleared a path for people to evacuate. Tails was thinking of a way to stop Emel for good. He knew what to do first. While Emel was buys fighting off Rouge, Tails picked up a sharp piece of rubble and batted it at Emel with one of his tails. The rubble hit Emel in his right eye which cracked and a piece of it fell off. Without both his eyes functioning, Emel couldn't copy skills anymore. Tails charged in yelling "Round two tin can!" The two of them fought fiercely once again. Then Emel knocked Tails to the ground with a spin dash. He came at Tails again trying to hit him while he was down, but Knuckles knocked the robot away. Tails saw some sparking wires in the wreckage next to a destroyed sign that would have read "Caution: High Voltage" if it was intact, and had an idea. Emel threw Knuckles over his head and was about to rampage again when Tails threw a piece of rubble at him. Emel took the bait and charged at Tails. Tails grasped one of the still sparking wires behind his back with his tails. Emel threw a punch, but at the last second Tails ducked and shoved the wire through the crack in Emel's eye. Emel tried to remove the wire but Tails grabbed his hands. Emel went limp after a few seconds of struggling. Tails saw Emel's body start to glow a second later as if it was overheating. Tail's eyes widened and he jumped back just as Emel exploded. Tails was far enough away not to get burned but the blast flung him into the air. The ground was coming up fast, but Tails was too weak to fly. He shut his eyes waiting for the impact but opened them when he felt gloved hands break his fall. He saw Sonic's concerned face looking at him and weakly said "Thank you Sonic" before blacking out.


	5. epilog

Epilog

Sonic rushed Tails to the hospital. "Rushed" being an understatement: he nearly broke all the glass he ran past he was running so fast. After a few minutes of tense waiting, the doctors said that Tails had taken a beating and blacked out from exhaustion but he'd be likely to recover in a few days. While Tails was recovering, Sonic and Amy took turns keeping the press away from his room. On his shifts Sonic explained that Tails need rest. Amy simply threatened reporters with her hammer until they left.

Tails woke slowly. He heard a voice that his tired brain recognized as Sonic's say "Hey everyone he's waking up". Tails opened his eyes to see a ceiling that had cards taped to it. Upon closer inspection, they all seemed to be "get well" cards for him. Tails turned to see Sonic, Chris, Cream, and Cheese giving him concerned looks. They were standing next to several stacks of get well cards that were each taller than Chris. "How are you feeling buddy?" Sonic asked. Tails replied, "Tired... where did all these cards come from?". Chris smiled and said "After you won the battle tournament and got hurt, we got swamped with them from concerned fans world-wide. This is all that would fit in your hospital room, there's more at home." Cream added "I hung some from the ceiling so you can look at them as you recover." Tails smiled and said "Thanks everyone".

After Chris, Chuck, and all Tails's mobian friends had already visited a few times, Tails was lying in bed when he heard voices outside his door. Figuring it was another reporter, Tails turned and tried to fall back to sleep. On the other side of the door, Fred had shown up in his karate gi. Sonic saw him and said "Sorry little buddy, only close friends get to see Tails. He needs his rest after all." Fred held out the autographed picture of Tails he had for Sonic to see. "Tails said he only tells his full name to certain people. Is that enough for you?" Sonic smiled and said "It is, just don't stay too long"

Tails heard the door open and saw Fred walking in. Tails smiled and Fred said excitedly "Hey Tails, I got my yellow belt". Tails was glad that he'd come through for Fred as he'd hoped to. Fred was about to say something else when his cell phone rang. "Sorry Tails, my Dad's calling me" he said and answered it. "Hey Dad how are things in Vegas?" after listing for a few seconds Fred exclaimed, "You want to take me on an overnight stay at Disney World? Do we even have the money for that?" Intrigued, Tails trained his hears and heard both ends of the conversation. "... After you told me how much you liked Tails, I decided to look at how much I'd win if I bet on Sonic like everyone else did. Since the payoff for Sonic's victory was very low, I thought 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' and decided to bet on Tails instead since you like him so much... I don't think I've ever made a more lucrative decision in my life." Fred smiled and said "Now that we're rich, can you come visit more often?" "Yes, I'll be home this weekend son" and he hung up.

Tails returned to the mansion two days later and sorted through his fan mail. He had just finished responding to the last letter when he saw a silver envelope on his bed. "Was that there before?" He thought to himself. He opened it and saw a message.

I'm very impressed by your victory over Emel. I thought it would take you more tries then it did. Please keep the enclosed pendant as a token of our encounter. Stay strong: I will be watching over you.

- The Silver One

P.S. This pendant is invisible to everyone else.

Tails found the pendant inside the envelope. It was a 3-dimensional version of his insignia made of a silvery metal that he couldn't identify. It came attached to a chain made of the same material. Tails hung the pendant around his neck. "I won't forget you Silver One" Tails thought to himself, "Thank you, for everything."


End file.
